Book Title: Only Bad Options Book Series: Galactic Bonds Author: Jennifer Estep Stars: 5 / 5
Spoilers Ahead!
Book cover for Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep. Image from the internet.
It is summer vacation time and I read a book: Only Bad Options. Jennifer Estep’s new series, Galactic Bonds, has two books at the time of writing this post. Book one is called Only Bad Options and book two is Only Good Enemies. This post will quickly review book one so I can get back to reading book two!
Only Bad Options has a great title. It is so relatable. Some days you are faced with only bad options and that is the premise for our female protagonist: Vesper Quill. In attempting to reveal a fatal flaw in the design of Kent Corps’ latest spaceship, Vesper angers the head of the corporation (her employer). Vesper is a disposable research and development grunt worker, whose report gets her unwillingly conscripted into the military and shipped off planet to die in battle.
Vesper is a minor Seer, an ability that helps her figure out how things work or need to be fixed. This talent comes to her aid, allowing Vesper to survive the battle and collect one of the most feared warriors during her exit. Kyrion Caldaren is an Imperium Arrow, an elite weapon used by the leader of the Archipelago Galaxy, Lord Callus Holloway, to kill his enemies. Despite their personal feelings, a Galactic Bond or Truebond forms between the pair. What many see as a great blessing, Vesper and Kyrion see as a curse, a dangerous curse.
Of course surviving the truebond is complicated by the enemies that come after Vesper – her former employer wants Vesper dead and she will use any method possible to ensure that happens. Kyrion may be bonded to her, but his loathing for truebonds means that he is just as likely to kill Vesper as help her (at least initially). Besides, Kyrion comes with even more baggage and enemies for Vesper to navigate.
While many issues are resolved at the end of book one, there are many more problems still around for book two. Sure, Vesper doesn’t need to worry about Kent Corp coming after her. And yes, she has finally gotten over her last boyfriend. But the Techwave rebels are supported by Regal families (the nobles of this galaxy) and they want to tear down the current government. At least they want to dethrone Lord Holloway. Of course, Vesper and Kyrion would also like to take down Lord Holloway – without anyone discovering they are bonded.
Book cover for Only Bad Options and Only Good Enemies by Jennifer Estep. Image from the internet.
I like this rollicking space opera romance. It is great fun. There is lots of action, some great character building, solid bad guys and a perfect blend of magic and technology. This fits right along with writing by T.A. White (featuring elves in space), Jessie Mihalik (featuring nanobots), and Ilona Andrews (featuring gene manipulation).
Alright team, it is movie review time as I saw Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 yesterday. Now, I know it is important when providing feedback on things to start by pointing out the positives. But I can’t. At least I am struggling to think of anything good in this 2.5 hour train-wreck of film. Well, I enjoyed the popcorn, so there is that.
What was wrong with Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 – everything. From the lack of plot to the terrible acting to the extraordinary length, this film was a slog.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 movie poster; image from the internet.
Let’s start with the story, which is really what the developers should have done. Ostensibly, this is the backstory of Rocket. Normally I like first movies because they cover this information. I quite like a good backstory. Unfortunately this movie did not add any additional information that we hadn’t already learned from meeting Rocket in other movies. We always knew he was a racoon that had been cruelly experimented on. We already knew he was smart. We already knew he had trust issues, but was still capable of forming friendship bonds – he was tightly tied to Groot. Sure this story added some more experimented animals to befriend Rocket when he was young, then killed them tragically. But this did not expand on our understanding of Rocket’s character.
As many people have pointed out, a good superhero movie is defined and supported by its villain. There is nothing like a really good villain to unite the audience into rooting for the good guys. Unfortunately, this was not a good villain. In fact, I can’t remember their name and I refuse to bother searching it up. The villain was a mess. Their goal was to create the perfect Utopian society. But why? The villain’s motivations were not explained. He was just some random bio-engineer designed to make us afraid of genetic manipulations? Despite being a dictator-like leader, he still had a plethora of followers. I suppose most of them had been the results of previous, undefined experiments.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 movie poster; image from the internet.
So, with no interesting plot and a forgettable villain I might have passed this movie with ambivalence and boredom. But then they had a scene that had the villain doing evil science by rapidly “evolving” Earth animals into “higher” life forms. I am puzzled and frustrated that the evolved forms were always humanoid in appearance. This is a self-indulgent, arrogant and completely erroneous way to look at or discuss evolution. It annoyed me. And if this was done to save on budget, then I am still annoyed at the creatively lazy approach to story development.
The characters seemed flat compared to the last time I saw them in their own movie. Their dialogue was filled with what should have been playful banter and amusing quips. I confess I do like a good amount of banter and one-line quips. This dialogue was just irritating. It was like listening to a class of grade 8 students – the epitome of annoying. They were not funny. They were not informative. They did not evolve as characters.
Also, this movie threw in characters that I don’t remember seeing before with nearly zero introduction. Honestly, who was the talking, telekinetic dog? Which brings me to the other frustration I had with the storytelling – constant references (without explanation) to past events. I have seen all three Guardian movies, but there were things mentioned that I didn’t know what they were talking about. I also saw all the Avenger movies and I was still baffled. Half explanations and “hey do you remember when” moments did not alleviate my sense of confusion. Yes, these movies are connected in a series and a larger world, but they need to work harder to make new viewers (or forgetful old ones) feel welcomed into the story. This movie failed and mostly made me feel like I was missing a lot of story.
Picture from the Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 movie – image from the internet.
Bloated with bum-numbingly long fight scenes, music I could not connect with and really obvious stupid moments, I actively did not like this movie. The plot should have been scrapped from the beginning – there was nothing fun or adventuresome about the checklist of scenes weakly tied together. I mean the characters had to regularly remind themselves of their own mission goals – which accounted for 70% of the dialogue. In conclusion, I would give this film 0 (zero) stars out of 5. It annoyed me and was not worth the 2.5 hours of my life when I could have been doing anything else, like cleaning the house.
Book Title: Chasing Down Her Highness Book Series: Rocky Royal Romance Book 1 Author: Fiona West Stars: 3.5 out 5
Spoilers Ahead!
Image of the book cover for Chasing Down Her Highness – from the internet.
Chasing Down Her Highness is the first book in the Rocky Royal Romance series by Fiona West. After running away from home and her royal family, Princess Abbie’s simple life is about to come to a crashing halt. She has been found by the emissary for Prince Edward, the man she contracted to marry as a girl. Despite her attempt to flee the royal life, Prince Edward is determined they should marry and it is not just for the political security an alliance with her Queendom would provide. Attempts to run away are thwarted and Princess Abbie finds herself heading home with assassins on her tail and a talking horse as a new companion. But if Prince Edward thinks she is going to be a willing bride, he is in for a shock.
This book really had me thinking about how I rank books. There was much about the book I liked. Abbie is a spunky protagonist and Edward is a determined, but sweet man. Stargazer obviously steals all the scenes he is in, after all, who isn’t entertained by a talking horse? The world feels wonderfully original – definitely fantasy and distinctly modern. Yet I would not classify this as an urban fantasy since it doesn’t feel like our world. This is a different place altogether with a mix of modern aspects (poptarts and cell phones) mixed with fantastical elements (dirigibles and magical powered conveniences). That makes it rather appealing, but challenging too.
Apparently this story was reprinted and the name was changed from The Ex-Princess to Chasing Down Her Highness – thanks to the internet for this image.
For while I didn’t need more explanation about how the world worked in order for me to follow the story. I did feel like I was missing something at the end. I was confused about the countries and who was aligned with whom. Which is something I could easily get over, since I am not a fan of politics. But the Veil and Unveiled was confusing, and this was not something I could easily forgive. I don’t understand how it works, which parts of the land are shrouded in … is it a thick layer of magic? Another dimension? Another realm? I don’t know and for me, I was left feeling unsatisfied at the end. Perhaps it is something that is explored in greater detail in the rest of the series. It is undoubtedly part of the reason this is getting only 3.5 instead of 4 stars.
The other reason was the writing. It seemed to slip between voices or styles of writing. Perhaps it was intentionally done. Unfortunately it came across as unpolished. While the story is good and the characters are strong and the world is interesting, the writing is fine. It is not terrible, I have certainly read far worse. But it wasn’t the strength of the book either.
So, after rambling for a few minutes now, I will say that Chasing Down Her Highness is a good read, definitely worth a shot – a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Three Pines is a murder mystery series by Louise Penny. These books have now been turned into a TV series. I haven’t seen the entire series, as it is coming out in sections. But I have seen the first four episodes of Three Pines, which seems to cover two books.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Image from the internet.
I feel I should take a moment to make a disclaimer: I read one book in this series and it was not the first book. So I don’t know anything about Three Pines or Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his detective team. I don’t know how accurate the TV episodes are to the book series. I can say that I like what I am currently watching. The series takes place in Quebec, in a small town outside of Montreal. Since the main character is part of the police, he speaks French. Recognizing the largely English audience, most of the dialogue is in English – but not all. They still switch to French on a regular basis – which I find helps to reinforce the characters and world building. Also the French is subtitled so I can actually follow what is being said. Oftentimes these are background comments being made that enhance the flavour but not the plot. For instance, the assistant constable calls for additional support from Headquarters when a body is found in French at the end of a scene. Even if you don’t read the subtitles, you are not missing out on important information.
The village locals meeting at the bookshop – totally not suspicious! Image from the internet.
The current pattern as each mystery requiring two episodes to solve. However, in the background, there is another case that the detectives are slowly working on. I think this is to provide an overreaching narrative to the series. Interestingly, they have decided to tackle the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women. Infact, the creators have leaned in heavily to the conflict between colonists and First Nation People in Canada. I don’t know how much is true to the books and how much is being added to reflect current times, but it is interesting to see discussion about residential schools and the lasting harm they caused brought into more mainstream TV. I cannot speak for anyone but myself, however, it seems they are presenting these issues in a meaningful and thoughtful manner. It certainly adds the feeling of relevance to the series that I don’t get with most cop shows on TV – which are generally pure escapism from reality.
The acting is good. There is certainly a range of colourful characters existing in the small village of Three Pines. Though much like Midsommer (England), it is not a place I want to live for there are far too many murders! 🙂 I do like the show and happily give it 4.5 stars out of 5. For a cop drama, I think it is just different enough to make it interesting and just similar enough to make it fun to watch.
Again, I am a little late to write about the TV series Wednesday. I actually watched it the first week it came out, but with November being busy and much of the first part of December being taken up with Holiday preparations, well I am late.
Image from the internet.
If you haven’t heard of Wednesday, it is the story of Wednesday Addams when she is sent to a private school for the outcastes of the world. In the promotional material it is described as a coming of age story with a mysterious madman lurking in the background.
I liked the series far more than I expected. I thought the casting was great: Jenna Ortega makes an excellent Wednesday Addams. They have Catherine Zeta-Jones for Morticia Addams, who is fabulous. I was less impressed with the young woman they had playing Morticia as a school girl, I didn’t find her as strong. Interestingly, I liked the young man playing school-aged Gomez Addams more than Luis Guzman who played the older version of the character. Luis was a bit stiff for me. The rest of the caste was well chosen. Emma Myers pulls off an amazingly colourful Enid!
School group from Nevermore Academy – image from the internet.
The story was visually interesting. There is an interesting play of colour and shadow throughout the series. I liked the stylization of the costumes, buildings and locations. The plot flowed nicely from start to finish. There were lots of guesses as to what was happening and who was behind it all that left me guessing from one episode to the next. The final reveal did not come out of nowhere – which I really liked. I hadn’t exactly guessed ‘who dunnit’, but I wasn’t blindsided by the twist either. It made sense and worked with the story.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams. Image from the internet.
It was easy to watch and very engaging. Which is impressive since it could have been very boring and painfully stilted (or ridiculously dramatic) with its focus on high school aged characters – such an awkward stage of life. I think I finished the series in four days – and generally I don’t binge watch TV. Overall I was quite surprised by how much I liked the show. I will give it a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars.
The hardest part about writing a review of the TV series is that I did like it. There is really not a lot to comment on. I think if you enjoy the Addams family then you will like this continuation of Wednesday Addams’ story.
I confess, I am late in writing my review of the Glass Onion. See, I saw the movie (in theaters) in November, but that was also the month I participated in Nanowrimo and I got sick. It was a busy month, so here I am quite late but still wanting to share my opinion of the movie: It was Great!
This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monae, and Daniel Craig in a scene from “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” (Netflix via AP)
I really enjoyed Knives Out. It wasn’t perfect – but nothing ever is. There were some distinct flaws to Knives Out, but I liked that old-time murder mystery feel to it. It was like an Agatha Christie mystery, but new and modern. One of my biggest complaints about Knives Out was that it had an amazing caste of characters, but ditched them about half way through the film. This is one area I think the sequel did better.
The Glass Onion has an amazing caste of characters and actors to portray them. And this time, all the key characters get lots of screen time. This made the Glass Onion so much better than Knives Out. By far the best of them is Janelle Monae – she gives the most amazing performance. And since I really don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of the film, I wont say anymore – but gosh she was brilliant!
Really, Knives Out was the better movie title. The Glass Onion sounds silly to me.
While it is true that Danial Craig’s southern accent for Benoit Blanc wavers in and out, he still plays the detective quite well. Benoit has all the self-confidence of a classic, world-famous detective. He can even back up some of his boasting with the ability to notice details.
It was also really interesting watching a movie that so clearly referenced the pandemic and some of the impacts it had on society. In fact there are a number of modern issues that run though this movie placing it nicely in current times, while still having a classical flare to the filming and script. It was really well done and easily deserves 4.5 stars out of 5 (because I am feeling slightly too stingy to give out perfect scores!).
Image from the internet.
Oh, so what is the plot of the Glass Onion? Well, I don’t really want to give too much away. But it follows a group of old friends, from different walks of life, getting together for a weekend on a private island. It is a murder mystery – so death is involved. Really, for more information, you should watch the movie. I know I am definitely going to see it again!
Book Title: The Raven Tower Author: Ann Leckie Stars: 4 out 5
Spoilers Ahead!
Book cover for The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie – image from the internet.
I can’t remember who recommended The Raven Tower to me, as it was some months ago. Well, I finally borrowed the book from the library. I didn’t like it, but it was well written. Or perhaps it is best to say, I wasn’t in the mood for this particular story, but as I had borrowed it from the library, I felt compelled to read it.
The Raven Tower is a novel by Ann Leckie. It is well written with a unique style, strong voice and complex characters. Unfortunately it is a story about Gods. And while Gods and their interactions with their worshipers (humans) is not the bottom of my list (that place is held for zombies), I am not a fan of these stories.
It was a bit of a slog for me to get into the book. And then through the rest of the story. Sadly, my personal reaction is not a good reflection of the writing, which I thought was interesting. The book is written as though the main character (a god) is talking directly to one of the other characters in the story. I can’t think of another story that has employed this format (at least from what I have read). It was a really interesting way of setting up the tale.
The story wove in and out of time as the god recalled earlier times and how those shaped its perspective on life, the world and the people of the region. All of this culminated in the ultimate destruction of a town and the tower that held our narrating god prisoner.
The other really well done aspect of the story was the discussion around transgender. The “you” in this narrative, Eolo, is a soldier promoted to aid of the Lease’s Heir. The Lease is the king-like figure in this land and voice of the Raven god. The Lease’s Heir is the next in line to the seat of power. Eolo is the aide to the current heir. Born a farmer and in a female body, he leaves home to become a soldier. Eolo becomes a sort of friend and trusted companion to the Heir. Brought to the city and the Raven’s tower, Eolo helps the Heir to unwind the political maneuverings and truths about their god.
Book cover for The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie – image from the internet. The book I borrowed was a hardcover.
How the author deals with Eolo and some of his insecurities is well done. There is a good mix of reactions of characters to those who are transgendered in this world. I think this sensitive topic was handled masterfully, with care and consideration. It was not preachy, but I think the message of understanding and compassion were at the front. It was definitely one of the best parts of the book.
So, while I didn’t care for the god’s story (3 out of 5 stars), I did think The Raven Tower was well written. Its unique style and intelligent handling of complex societal issues was well done (5 out of 5 stars). Averaging the two numbers, perhaps unfairly, I would give this 4 out of 5 stars.
Book Title: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking Author: T. Kingfisher Stars: 4.5 out of 5
Spoilers Ahead!
Book cover for A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher – image from the internet.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher is a well written fantasy story about a fourteen year old baker called on to defend her city from invasion. Our delightfully upfront protagonist is Mona. She works at her Aunt’s bakery and lives in a tiny room over the glassblower’s shop six doors down the street. Tragically her parents are dead, so her Aunt and Uncle are her only family. Fortunately, despite these stereotypes, her Aunt is a generally good, strong force in Mona’s life. And even her Uncle is supportive and caring.
Mona’s usual routine at the bakery starts early in the morning, but on this particular day things go terribly wrong. There is a dead body on the floor of the kitchen and soon the esteemed Inquisitor Oberon is accusing Mona of murder. Turns out that more and more people are looking suspiciously at wizards and someone is actively trying to kill them all. Mona is quickly caught up in a plot to eradicate all the city’s wizards and wrestle control from the Duchess. Dodging death and adults, Mona seeks out the one person who should be able to help her, the Duchess. Only the Duchess isn’t in as much control as she thought. And there is a large army marching up to the gates of the city. With the city’s own army out, and most of the wizards dead, Mona is one of the few magic users still around to help fight back the invasion and save her home.
Mona is a fun, engaging lead character. We meet a few other interesting folks along the way, but as this story is told in the first person, it is all about Mona. As a bread wizard, her skills include making sure bread doesn’t burn while baking and causing gingerbread men to dance for customers. These are all minor tricks. And while her magic grows by the end of the story into giant dough golems and a horde of evil gingerbread men, it is still all bread related.
The magic system is an interesting mix of amazing power, limited only by the creativity of the wizard and the medium in which they work. For Mona that is bread. For other wizards that could be flowers or water. For one woman in the city it is dead horses, which sounds far more morbid than it was in the book. I appreciate the simplicity of the discussion of magic, it was not trained or taught, just something a few citizens had which allowed them to do things in their specialty. Like Mona could make sure her bread didn’t burn in the oven.
The city is set in a world of city states. Since Mona has not traveled, we only get the barest overview of the other cities. Like most of them don’t like wizards, an easy form of prejudice to explore in fantasy novels. It parallels the prejudice and hate faced by many groups in real life, in an easy way for younger readers to understand and relate to. The numerous city states mean lots of conflict between them too, as groups of people are want to do.
Book cover for A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher – image from the internet because I borrowed a digital copy of the book from the library.
This is a young adult book. As Mona is only fourteen, there are definite moments of child versus adult in this book. The solution to Mona’s hiding from the constabulary is to break into the castle and speak with the Duchess. There is an interesting tension between the role of child and adult in the story. Mona expects the adults to fix the problems, which of course they don’t because she is the protagonist. While the story has good pacing, I personally found it lingered too long on the preparations and battle at the end. That was the least interesting aspect of the tale.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking (I really do love the title) was a fun read. It would be a good read for a younger audience, but the writing and world description make it a good read for adults too. Overall, I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Book Title: The Avant Champion: Rising Author: C.B. Samet Book Series: The Avant Champion Stars: 3/5
Spoilers Ahead!
The Avant Champion book cover – image from the internet.
So, in an effort to slow down my spending on books, I thought I would re-read something old. Browsing through my library, I pulled out a couple of books I had started but never finished, a couple of books I didn’t remember reading until I started them, and one book I didn’t remember buying. Avant Champion by C.B. Samet was the book I didn’t remember getting.
Since I didn’t remember getting Avant Champion, I also had zero recollection of the synopsis that inspired me to pick it up. And ebooks, unlike paperbacks, do not have an easy way of flipping over the cover to read the book’s hook. I was going in blind. Which meant that the opening chapter really set up my expectations.
“I didn’t want to die, but I could see no other option. My purpose was to die – in this day, at this moment, by the hand of Evil.” ~chapter 1, The Avant Champion: Rising.
The next line indicates a time skip backwards 18 days. Well, there is the set up. Main character is going to die by the end of the book and the eighteen days leading up to the opening paragraph is going to show us why. Of course, as I am reading, I am also secretly hoping our intrepid heroine will survive Evil – but there is a general sense of sacrifice that is being set up.
Abigail Cross begins her 18 day countdown working a ball as a servant for the Queen. Only that night she watches as shadow monsters kill her brother and finds herself responsible for protecting the Queen. On the run and baffled about what is happening to the kingdom, Abby flees first to the familiar grounds of the University where she had spent much of her recent years. But they can’t stay long, they are being hunted.
Picking up extra help in the form of her brother’s friend, Joshua, Abby leads the Queen to a distant part of the Kingdom. A place Abby was familiar with from her years of field studies through the University program. There, they are given more aid and direction. First visit the Monks that outline the things Abby needs to collect to summon the Avant Champion who will defeat the Evil spreading across the land. Abby uses the friends she has met through her previous travels to collect the necessary items.
Of course, we are not surprised to discover that Abby is the Avant Champion who has to face Evil. Now the opening makes sense. So, by this point I am expecting that Abby needs to die as a requirement for being the Champion. Or the Champion is really the person that sacrifices themself and through that sacrifice Evil is banished for another 1000 years.
Turns out I was wrong. The Avant Champion is just a person who has to ‘kill’ the leader of Evil, which will drive the rest of the horde back to the volcanic island from whence they came. It is a literal battle of good versus evil. People die. So, when Abby lived, I figured another character would have to be sacrificed – sacrifice does come up a few times in the book. Joshua was the most likely candidate as Abby’s love interest (also her family is already dead). Nope, she saves him too. Then, just to make her tragic life less tragic, she will discover that her mother is actually still alive.
Where to start in the analysis? Well, I liked the intro for setting up the climax. Only it didn’t play out at all as I expected. I think I like the way the story was written. We are following Abby along on her fetch and protect quest. As we go we learn a bit more about her life and her travels around the different corners of the kingdom. There were long sections of info-dumping, but it still read pretty well.
The fetch quest format was fine. I like the idea of learning that myths are real. That there are many layers (think magic) to the world. The world itself was a puzzle. It was fantasy. Not medieval. Transportation technology was at the point of carriages and trains. Weapons were mostly spears, swords and arrows – no guns. Clothing for women included fancy gowns for the wealthy and trousers and tunics for many other women.
The idea that Evil was literally the evil pulled out the People in the world and concentrated on the volcanic island where it would fester for about 1000 years then it would strike out and try to over take the kingdom was … interesting. I don’t know if I like the idea of providing a physical form to our evil hearts or find it simplistic in that there is not great weight to fighting it.
That Abby’s entire life was manipulated to make her the Avant Champion was an interesting way to explore Fate and Free Will. The author could have pulled more on this theme throughout the book. But it was fine.
The star tattoo that allows Abby to teleport around the world with ease is a bit overpowered. However as she is quickly established as having no great ambitions to take over the world. I can work with it.
The Avant Champion book cover series – image from the internet.
For me the biggest drawback was I started reading the novel thinking it was a complete story. I didn’t realize it was part of a series. And the big battle, that is foreshadowed in the opening two paragraphs, well that takes place three quarters into the book. That means the wrap up of everything accounts for 25% of the book’s length. That is a long section. And really, it is the justification for writing a sequel. I think I liked it better when the Champion beat Evil then went off and lived the rest of her life. But there are at least 4 more books about Abby.
Overall it is a fun story. It is neat to see how the different myths become real as Abby takes on the role of Avant Champion. It is difficult to overcome my hesitation about this being book one in a series. And the way magic just sort of reapers without other people commenting on it. I am giving this story 3 out of 5 stars – because I am picky.
Book Title: Hummingbird Author: Helen Harper Series Title: A Charade of Magic Stars: 5/5
Spoilers Ahead!
Hummingbird book cover – image from the internet.
Hummingbird is the first book in A Charade of Magic, the new series by Helen Harper. One of the things that drew me to Hummingbird was the setting. This fantasy story takes place in Glasgow, Scotland – and I have been there! There is something about reading books set in familiar (or even vaguely familiar) locations that makes them more personal. I would say relatable, but the level of oppression and magic present in Hummingbird was thoroughly absent from my Glasgow experience.
Helen Harper is a great writer. I love her characters and her world building. She effortlessly blends fantasy elements with real world settings. Contemporary fantasy or urban fantasy would, I suppose, be decent descriptors. Magic exists in her worlds. Regularly it is just present. Unlike many urban fantasy writers who describe near futures where magic has suddenly appeared, Harper tends to have magic well established in the world. It is not a point she belabours and I think this works very well to create interesting places that are like and unlike the world we know.
For instance, Mages run Glasgow – well all of Scotland (and likely Britain beyond). Their powers are known by the local characters. No one feels the need to explain magic, unless it is specifically a point in the plot development. There is no marker of before magic and after magic. In fact, it was not clear when this book was set. Unlike many of her other series which are clearly taking place in modern day equivalents, Hummingbird lacked the obvious use of technology we use to date a story’s setting. Yet, it didn’t feel like it was a stereotypical medieval fantasy either.
While it might seem easy, writing a compelling story with a mute protagonist is difficult. It is easy for the book to be overwhelmed with long passages of text or internal monologuing. I found Mairi Wallace to be an engaging lead. While the readers got to hear her internal voice, she was able to have some conversations with others too. It was easy to sympathize with Mairi and the challenging choices she was faced with throughout the story.
More importantly the mystery of the power held by the oppressive ruling mages was well done. The book does an interesting job of portraying the imbalance and corruption of power by those with magic. It also raises questions of their ability to stay in power, which is not entirely resolved as this is only book one in the series.
While I do like the inclusion of the ever intriguing demon, chained to the will of the mages, I am holding many reservations about the Afflicted. These shambling abominations read too much like zombies, which I don’t like. The saving grace, so far, is the increasing amount of evidence pointing to conscious people, rather than mindless hordes of aggressive predators. This was one of the major plot points not resolved in the story.
I also have some questions about Thunder and Belle with whom Mairi apprenticed in their tartan shop. This couple was described in strongly unflattering terms at the start of the story, neglectful at best and abusive at worst. Yet they appear as helpers in the end. More than that, their sudden reappearance suggests they have a greater understanding of who Mairi is than Mairi did herself. It was like they expected to discover she was a powerful female mage in a world where mages are only male – at least according to those in charge.
Of course these questions and uncertainties leave me very enthusiastic for the sequel. While I haven’t read everything by Harper, I have read many of her books and enjoyed all of them. Hummingbird was a great read and promises to be another great series. With negative points for the inclusion of Afflicted-zombies outweighed by being set in Glasgow, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
